On January 28, 2020, Dr. Jie He from Tianjin University’s School of Architecture started an 11 day trip to the Republic of Montenegro together with his three graduate students, Xiaomin Guo, Liyun Zhang, and Yucheng Zhang. At the invitation of the History Institute of the University of Montenegro, they were to conduct data acquisition and academic exchanges required by a joint research project entitled GIS for regional cultural heritages: methodology based on case studies from katuns on the Mountains of Kuči in Montenegro and cultural route sites of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Area of China.

During the visit, the team completed the field research, documentation, and surveying of historical sites such as castles and monasteries around the Skadar Lake. “Actually, it is the second phase of the cooperative project. With the data acquisition and field work, we hope to get a clear idea of the historical heritages and cultural landscape value the Skadar Lake and its vicinities possess and find out ways to employ and protect these cultural heritage resources” said Dr. Jie He.

During the field trip to the Skadar Lake (from the left: Dr. Ivan Laković, Dr. Tatjana Koprivica, Dr. Olga Pelcer-Vujačić, Dr. Jie He, Xiaomin Guo, Liyun Zhang, Yucheng Zhang, and Dr. Miloš Petričević; photo provided by the History Institute of the University of Montenegro)

Landscape of the Skadar Lake district in Montenegro (photo by Dr. Ivan Lakovic)

A distant view of Zabljak Crnojevica, a medieval fortress and one of the most important cultural heritage sites around the Skadar Lake (photo by Dr. Ivan Lakovic)

Approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China and the Ministry of Science of Montenegro in 2018, the project undertaken by Tianjin University’s School of Architecture and the History Institute of the University of Montenegro aims to develop methodologies underpinning geographic information system (GIS) for documentation and analysis of regional cultural heritages based on specific cases. It attempts to perform special investigations, from the perspectives of sustainable agriculture and tourism, on the traditional dwellings of Kuči Mountain in Montenegro and study about landscape-based cultural routes in China.

In September 2019, a group of researchers from the History Institute of the University of Montenegro led by Dr. Olga Pelcer-Vujačić paid a visit to the School of Architecture, Tianjin University to discuss the innovative application of GIS technologies in the research field of cultural heritage conservation based on the GIS platform. This visit is deemed as a prelude to this inter-governmental project.

Researchers from the History Institute of the University of Montenegro visit the School of Architecture (from the left: Dr. Jie He, Dr. Ivan Laković, Dr. Olga Pelcer-Vujačić, Dr. Tatjana Koprivica, Dr. Slavko Burzanović, and Dr. He’s student Liyun Zhang, a graduate)

By the School of Architecture

Editor: Eva Yin